Because I know that time is always time And place is always and only place And what is actual is actual only for one time And only for one place I rejoice that things are as they are and I renounce the blessed face And renounce the voice Because I cannot hope to turn again Consequently I rejoice, having to construct something Upon which to rejoice - The Wasteland - TS EliotEveryone sees Atitlan through different eyes and every generation that returns comments on how it has changed and how innocent it had been. So I heard sitting in a cafe in Panahachel on Avenida Santander.
When I was there in 1990 the 100 men of Santiago had been killed by the army the month before. Throughout Guatemala people were ?disappeared? and there was a general sense that the government was engaged in genocide.
This extended to Finca Ixobel near Poptun where Michael Devine was killed by Colonel Pires of the local cuartel. It was a time of beauty and of lawlessness and tragedy.
-- (August 9, 2006) on Lago de Atitlán